December 17, 2008 by Matt Thomas
Interesting developments over at Apple; the company has announced that Steve Jobs will not be giving the keynote speech at the Macworld show this year, as had been planned. Furthermore, this will be the last Macworld show that the company will be attending at all. Jobs will be replace d this year by Phil Schiller, Apple marketing chief.
The show has seen several Jobs keynotes over the years. His appearance almost always guarantees major headlines and importantly helps the company steal coverage and distract attention from the CES, traditionally Microsoft’s big trade show. So, what’s going on?
Well, obviously the first conclusion you might jump to is that Steve jobs’ health is deteriorating – the Apple CEO has battled with pancreatic cancer in the past. Obviously we hope that isn’t true and luckily it’s probably the less likely answer. What’s more probable is that Apple don’t want to draw too much attention to themselves at the moment, mainly because they have nothing to announce – there’s no significant new developments or products due out, no new iPhone etc.
Apple also need tradeshows less than other companies, they have a brand and public profile that other companies can only dream of, as well as numerous stores in prime locations and a largely friendly relationship with the media. In short, they have other, possibly better, ways to get the word out and don’t necessarily need the cost of all that trade show razzmattazz.
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